1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to sliding doors and the like, and more particularly to structures for effecting movement of the lower edges of such doors along floor-mounted tracks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is conventional to hang a sliding door for movement on upper rollers, and to provide wheels on the bottom of the door to ride on a floor-mounted rail. It is well known that such doors are easily dislodged from their bottom rails, as when a wardrobe door is released while being forcibly shoved by hand from closed position towards the opposite jamb. The result in many instances is that the door is damaged, wheels broken and other parts in need of maintenance. To minimize such incidents and the time, effort and expense involved in repairs and replacement, attempts have heretofore been made to provide a mechanism for keeping such a door from being dislodged from the floor track. In the closest known art in this regard, a plate is secured to the pin or stub shaft on which the wheel is mounted, and a lip or flange on the lower edge of the plate engages a lip on one side of the rail. Such a device is unable to accomodate or compensate for situations wherein the track and the lower edge of the door are not parallel when the door is stationary, and it is easily broken or damaged when the door is subjected to force tending to lift it off the rail. Further, such a device as known has substantial friction with the rail during normal movements of the door where the rail is not parallel to the bottom of the door, whereby the door moves easily at one end of the track but requires the application of an undesired amount of force to move it along the opposite end of the track.